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Reading:

The Thin Place by Kathryn Davis — I mention that last week and said that I wasn’t sure about it. When I wrote about this week I talked about how our exceptions of a book can alter our experience of reading it. I am further along in my reading and I am enjoying the writing. Can’t say I know what is going on, but I will continue to read.

I love all of these books. They are all a collection of letters. The each tells a story in one character at a time sorted as call and response. I love the way that Ella Minnow Pea is as much about the form as the story. I love the way that 84, Charing Cross Road is so slim and yet conveys YEARS of feeling and emotion. I love the politics in Les Liaisons Dangereuses. I love the voices in Guernsey.

Ella Minnow Pea reminds me a little of Spoon River Anthology in that the author had to select words as carefully as Edgar Lee Master in order to craft the story he wanted to tell. Mark Dunn stopped using certain letters during the course of his novel. Since the premise of the book was that the letters had been outlawed and therefore his characters could not use them in any form of communication. SpoonRiver a collection where the dead speak their minds about the goings on in town is a collection of poems. I always think of novelist has having the freedom to use as many words as they need to tell a story and of poets trying to use the least amount or the most precise words. I am sure there are all manner of exceptions to these rules, but this was the most immediate parallel that came to mind when I was reading Ella Minnow Pea.

When I read Guernsey, I immediately thought of 84, Charing Cross Road. There is something about these two books one fiction and one non-fiction that seem to share the same spirit. Maybe because they both have main characters who are writers, maybe because they both begin in post WWII Britain, or maybe because they both contain a love of reading, I don’t know. In my mind this books are like twin souls and if you like one you will like the other. I admire Shaffer and Barrows for being able to give each character such a unique voice and to tell such a powerful story in their slim collection of letters. I am sorry that Shaffer never got to see her work in print the same way I am sorry for the way 84, Charring Cross closes. (I don’t want to spoil it, but don’t get the mistaking impression I don’t like the ending.)

In a novel with a good ending where comeuppance is paid all round, Les Liaisons Dangereuses has become a bit of an obsession. I read the book, listened to the audio, seen several versions of the movie. I don’t know why I became so obsessed with this. Is it just because it is another collection of letters? Is it because of the games of intrigues and fancy clothes? Maybe it is the language. I often wonder if the people of 1782 spoke like they wrote.

I often wonder about that difference between speech and the written word when I read collections of letters. I have started the letters of Noël Coward, another non-fiction entry. People have a chance to plan their speech in letters and some come off as far more formal than they would in speech. There is opportunity of crossing out and doing over, not afford to the quick of tongue. Then there is the difference between the real collections where everyone has a separate voice because they are separate people and the novels where one creator must not only create separate voices but written voices as oppose to dialogue.

How much difference is there? Think about the e-mails that you get from friends you know in person. I’m sure the letters sound like them and that you might even hear their voice in your head as you read, but does it also sound like how they TALK. Some of my friends do type exactly how they speak and others have a more unique style that I wouldn’t describe as formal so much as different from they way they speak.

Any thoughts? Any collection of letters you’d recommend as a must read?

Author Interview:

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The Folk Keeper by Franny Billingsley — I really enjoyed this middle grade novel, which I picked up from BookMooch. The publisher says ages 10-14, but I think it has appeals for older readers as well, esp. those who enjoy rewritten fairy tales and legends. You can read my review here.

Reading:

The Thin Place by Kathryn Davis — this one is a little confusing and I’m not really sure where it is going yet. I picked this up from BookMooch.

Acquired:

The Barnes & Noble boxes arrived this week. Yay, Birthday gift cards.

To feed my Nero Wolf obsession, I got three books about the series. Fan guides of a sort. I can’t wait to start going through them. I also received, Devotions upon Emergent Occasions and Death’s Duel by John Donne. I’d been watching 84, Charing Cross Road and listening to Helene Hanff talk about Donne’s essays, which I’ve never read and decided that it was time to remedy that. I like a lot of Donne’s poetry, so I’m looking forward to the essays. I also picked out Blackout by Connie Willis, because I really enjoyed To Say Nothing of the Dog and I heard a wonderful interview with her talking about the title. And lastly, I got These Children Who Come At You with Knives and of other fairy tales by Jim Knipfel, which I don’t know a lot about, but it sounded cool.

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading is organized by Sheila over at Book Journey. Be sure to stop by her site and read the great blogs of the other participates.

( On a personal note I’d like to thank St. Jude, St. Rita, the Blessed Mother, and Heavenly Father for all the prayers they’ve answered in the last month and to continue to ask for their help and blessings.)